CLI refresh_interval causing terminal auto-scroll; making it configurable or disabled

Fixes on record

Merged to main. A stamp counts the issues a fix is linked to.

• #49056 fix(cli): make idle refresh_interval configurable, default 0 (no auto-scroll)

  merged to main

  files: cli.py, hermes_cli/config.py, scripts/release.py, tests/hermes_cli/test_config.py

  Show the diff

  • cli.py

    @@ -13527,13 +13527,13 @@ def _get_voice_status():
                 style=style,
                 full_screen=False,
                 mouse_support=False,
    -            # The status bar contains wall-clock read-outs (live prompt elapsed
    -            # and idle-since-last-turn). Once a turn finishes there may be no
    -            # further events to invalidate the app, so prompt_toolkit would keep
    -            # rendering the first post-turn value (usually ``✓ 0s``) forever.
    -            # A low-rate refresh keeps the clock honest without reintroducing a
    -            # custom repaint thread or touching conversation state.
    -            refresh_interval=1.0,
    +            # Read from display.cli_refresh_interval (default 0 = disabled).
    +            # When non-zero, prompt_toolkit redraws the UI on this cadence
    +            # during idle, keeping wall-clock status-bar read-outs ticking.
    +            # Set to 0 to suppress background redraws entirely — avoids
    +            # fighting terminal auto-scroll in non-fullscreen mode (Xshell,
    +            # iTerm2, Windows Terminal). See #48309.
    +            refresh_interval=float(CLI_CONFIG.get("display", {}).get("cli_refresh_interval", 0)),
                 # Erase the live bottom chrome (status bar, input box, separator
                 # rules) on exit instead of freezing a final copy into scrollback.
                 # Without this, prompt_toolkit's render_as_done teardown repaints

  • hermes_cli/config.py

    @@ -1581,6 +1581,12 @@ def _ensure_hermes_home_managed(home: Path):
             # TUI busy indicator style: kaomoji (default), emoji, unicode (braille
             # spinner), or ascii.  Live-swappable via `/indicator <style>`.
             "tui_status_indicator": "kaomoji",
    +        # Seconds between prompt_toolkit redraws in the classic CLI when idle.
    +        # 0 = disabled (no background refresh — the pre-0.15.2 behaviour).
    +        # Positive values e.g. 1.0 keep wall-clock status-bar read-outs
    +        # (idle-since-last-turn) ticking but may fight terminal auto-scroll in
    +        # non-fullscreen mode on some emulators (Xshell, iTerm2, etc.).
    +        "cli_refresh_interval": 0,
             "user_message_preview": {  # CLI: how many submitted user-message lines to echo back in scrollback
                 "first_lines": 2,
                 "last_lines": 2,

  • scripts/release.py

    @@ -1531,6 +1531,7 @@
         "[redacted:email]": "erikengervall",  # PR #28774 (firecrawl integration tag)
         "[redacted:email]": "egilewski",  # PR #30432 (MEDIA path traversal fix, GHSA-jmf9-9729-7pp8)
         "[redacted:email]": "McClean-Edison",  # PR #29817 (register_auxiliary_task plugin API)
    +    "[email protected]": "OYLFLMH",  # PR #48312 salvage (cli_refresh_interval config, #48309)
         "[redacted:email]": "SamuelZ12",  # PR #7480 (show recap after in-session resume)
         "[redacted:email]": "daizhonggeng",  # PR #9020 (numbered /resume selection)
         "[redacted:email]": "wanwan2qq",  # PR #10215 (strip brackets/quotes from /resume; gateway session-ID lookup)

  • tests/hermes_cli/test_config.py

    @@ -955,6 +955,16 @@ def test_migrate_to_v15_adds_interim_assistant_message_gate(self, tmp_path):
             assert raw["display"]["interim_assistant_messages"] is True
     
     
    +class TestCliRefreshIntervalConfig:
    +    """Test the CLI refresh_interval config default (#48309)."""
    +
    +    def test_default_config_disables_cli_refresh_interval(self):
    +        """cli_refresh_interval defaults to 0 (disabled) to avoid
    +        background redraws that fight terminal auto-scroll-on-output
    +        in non-fullscreen mode (Xshell, iTerm2, Windows Terminal)."""
    +        assert DEFAULT_CONFIG["display"]["cli_refresh_interval"] == 0
    +
    +
     class TestDiscordChannelPromptsConfig:
         def test_default_config_includes_discord_channel_prompts(self):
             assert DEFAULT_CONFIG["discord"]["channel_prompts"] == {}